I have an older home with a fuse box and I need to add outlets in the basement. I also need to up the fuses to at least 20 from 15 so I can run my saw. How do I do this?
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Dear Doyle,
Make sure your fire insurance is paid up and your electrical inspector is paid off, before you even think of doing that!
Those fuses are rated to protect the 15 amp wiring and to prevent you from burning your house down. What is the point in having a fuse that doesn't get warm until the wires have set the wall on fire? Upping the fuses is arson.
Yeah, I know I am a big meanie, but I am glad that, when I was a young electrician, my electrical inspector was the meanest bastid in the North. Thanks to his incessant ranting and brainwashing about that sort of stuff, none of my clients ever had an electrical fire.
OK, I'll get off my soap box now. What you need to do is add a sub-panel with additional fuses or breakers, and from there run a 20 amp line to your saw, and 15 amp lines to your new outlets, or replace the old fuse box with a modern breaker panel.
You might also want to consider pinning the saw motor to 220 Volt. The diagram for doing that is under the cover of the motor connection box. Then you can use cheap 15 Amp wire for the saw. At 220 Volt it draws only half as many Amps as at 110 Volt.
With a breaker panel that is easy. Then you can use a double breaker and connect the red and the black wire of one 3-wire cable to the basement to it.
However, since you might add a dust collector and a little air compressor by next Christmas, it would be a good idea to run two of those 3-wire cables to the basement. Use the old wiring just for lights and small power tools.
By the way 3-wire cable has a red, a black, a white wire, plus a bare (or yellow/green) wire. The bare or yellow/green wire is not counted.
Have FUN!
DearWebby
webby.com/
Hire an elecrtrician we had fuse box and kept having power surges thought it was just the fuses so we kept replacing them finally called out an electrician, he found wires that were broken and electricity was jumping from one wire to another we never smelled anything. The panel box on the house when he removed it you could see the damage from the sparks. He told us we were lucky to be alive
So please if your not experienced hire a pro
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